Pula, Croatia

Typically when I start writing a blog post, I've already edited (I'm an extremely amateur editor) and uploaded photographs.  I've also usually thought about a title (I like to use alliteration, in case you haven't noticed).  I take the time to choose which pictures I'll use and how they will fit into what I have to say about our trip or our experience.  This time, though, I'm just sitting down to write.  There will be pictures, of course, but maybe they will all be at the end.  Maybe I'll take the time to fit them into my words, but I don't know.  The reason for this is because we have all seen gorgeous beaches and sunset pictures.  If you keep up with my blog, you've seen quite a few pictures of my family doing cool stuff in Europe.  While Croatia was beautiful, it was my experience there with my husband and son that really made the trip wonderful for me.  So, pictures second.  Or maybe you won't read any of this, you'll just look for the pictures :)

Several people asked us why we picked Croatia as a vacation spot.  Well, it's warm, sunny, and has an ocean.  What else do you need?  It's also within driving distance.  Actually, it was our friends idea.  They really wanted to go there.  They didn't get to go because of scheduling.  When we were in Croatia I felt really guilty about that.  It was definitely their idea.  However, now that they are about to go to Cinque Terre, Italy, and I can't go, I have lost all guilt.  (Robin, Zach, and Madi: I hope you have an amazing trip! You deserve it.  Take lots of pictures for me, and you can tell me all the cool stops to make!)  I hope as you read this, you know that I have a smile on my face while I write.  Our friends are great, and we give each other crap about this kind of stuff all the time.

We went to Croatia just over a 4-day weekend.  We thought the drive would take 6 to 8 hours.  It took 10.  Somebody (ANDY!) had to take like 4 bathroom breaks in 2 hours.  Geez, lay off the energy drinks, would you?  Actually, it was a nice drive.  Evan didn't cry or whine at all.  He watched a couple of movies and played games on his iPad (thank you, Misty!) and he slept for almost 4 hours.  It was interesting driving through Austria and Slovenia to get there, though they were much the same.  There were a lot of mountains.  And a lot of tunnels through the mountains.  The only real change from one to the next was the language on the signs.  Ok, so it wasn't that interesting of a drive I guess.

The best graffiti ever!

When we got into Croatia, 9 hours into our 10 hour drive, was when we really saw changes.  Croatia is a war-torn country.  I have students from Croatia who have told me tragic stories.  I could write an entire blog just about that, but for now, I'll leave those stories alone.  Despite the wars, Pula (the city where we stayed) is still pretty much intact.  However, the buildings are run-down.  The old, once-beautiful architecture is crumbling and graffitied.  The apartment buildings (and there are tons of them) badly needed coats of paint and I'm sure some serious updating.  Despite that, I saw beauty in the little things.  Brightly colored flowers hanging on balconies.  People selling fruit on the side of the road.  People on their bikes going to the beach.  Kids enjoying the sun and the water.  People sitting outside at pizzerias (every restaurant is a pizzeria in Pula).  No one cared about crumbling buildings, or graffiti, or old apartments; they seemed to be just living and enjoying it.

Finally we made it to our "resort."  It basically was like a huge apartment complex with a ton of little dorm rooms.  So it wasn't 5-star; we didn't drive 10 hours to sit in a hotel anyway.  Well, maybe Evan did.  That kid loves hotels!  It was nice because it was inexpensive, and right on the water!  We basically dropped our bags and ran for the sea.  And that's what we did for almost the whole vacation.  We sat by the Adriatic and soaked up the sun.  I read.  Andy jumped off the rocks into the water.  Evan climbed the rocks.  It was glorious.


The beaches in Pula aren't sand beaches, they are stone beaches.  Most of the area isn't even a beach, but just volcanic rock that you can jump off of into the water.  If you ever go to Croatia, take swimming shoes! You think those things are dumb, don't you?  They look stupid, right?  Well, I wish I had some right about the time that I stepped on a sea urchin!  Actually, I didn't know what I stepped on at first.  I just knew that when I got out of the water, I still had some spikey things in my foot.  I wanted Andy to get tweezers from the store there so I could get the spikes out, but they didn't have them, so he came back with safety pins.  That worked, except for one piece, which I'm pretty sure is actually still in my foot.  It's a souvenir.  I figured out it was a sea urchin when some fellow sunbathers scooped one up and brought it over for Evan to see.

Collecting rocks to throw into the ocean.

Yes, I told Andy to squish the sun.  Yes, I think it's funny.

Despite the sea urchin, I still swam in the water.  It was too refreshing not to.  The Adriatic Sea is the cleanest part of the Mediterranean, so we had to swim in it.  There aren't really sharks either, so that's comforting.  I didn't jump off of the high rocks into it like Andy.  He loved doing that!  He's the thrill-seeker: never afraid.  It was my first time in water that deep without a life vest or something to hang on to, so that was enough of a thrill for me.  I learned that I can tread water!  Well, it's closer to a doggie paddle, but it works.  Evan wasn't so interested in being in the water.  We had to get an inflatable boat to get him into the deeper parts, and he didn't even really enjoy that.  But he loved the rocks because there were little pools of water where he could check out the fish and the crabs.  Some nice guy even gave him a net for catching little creatures.  He spent most of his time jumping on the rocks, looking in the pools, and shooting water with his water gun.  It was little boy paradise.

Sorry for the kissy picture.  It's cute because Evan took it and you can see his little shadow!

Every single day after laying by the water, swimming, and playing on the rocks, Evan told us, "This is the best day ever!"  It is such a gift to see your child enjoying life.  The happiness of a child is contagious.  He didn't once complain that he was bored or say that he wanted to go home.  He did, a few times, say he wanted to go back to the room so he could play with his toys and take a nap.  On one night, another "best day ever," Evan went to sleep while Andy and I stayed on the patio and had a few beers and talked.  We told each other stories, some we already knew and some new ones we hadn't shared before.  We got to laugh at some of the things we did when we were younger, like first dating experiences.  I particularly liked the one about Andy holding hands with a girl in a church pew.  But that's his story.  It was so nice to be able to talk and learn things about each other even after almost 7 years of being together.  We talked about the future, which we do often.  Where we want to live and what we want our home to be like.  He still says no to the farm idea, but perhaps I can sneak a few horses into the yard.  Even though the ocean was great, connecting with my husband was the best part of the trip.  It's nice to take a break from the military life; to relax and smile and feel totally content.

Enough lovey dovey stuff for you.  There are a couple of things that I left out.  First, Croatian food is no good.  Every place was a pizzeria and the pizza was mediocre at best.  The last night there I decided to splurge and get what they called a "first class fish" dish, which was supposed to be sea bass.  I've had sea bass.  It's awesome.  This wasn't it.  This was a whole fish: head, skin, tail, fins, and all.  I think Andy's favorite line of the trip was when I picked up the fish and said, "What am I? A bear?  What the heck am I supposed to do with this?"  It was funny.  But it was an expensive laugh, because I barely ate any of it.  Thank goodness we took our own stuff to make for breakfast and lunch.

What you lookin' at?

Pizza every day! He loved it!

Second, there was surprisingly little nudity.  This is Europe.  As Americans, we kind of expect all beaches to be nude beaches.  They aren't.  There was only 1 topless lady, and she was in the same spot as us every day.  Andy and I were like children, because we are so unaccustomed to it.  It doesn't bother me, though, and Evan didn't even notice.

Pula Arena

Third, the Pula Arena, or amphitheater, is really awesome.  It's one of the oldest, most in-tact arenas left in the area.  It is one of the 6 largest Roman arenas left in the world.  That was fun to see.  Unfortunately, we didn't get to go inside this time because they were having a show.  However, arenas like this are conducive to seeing inside from the outside, so it was fine!

Lastly, the exchange rate was so hard to wrap our minds around.  We were told that Croatia would begin using the Euro in July (we went July 4th).  However, it takes a very long time to switch currencies, so no place really accepted Euros, they still used the Kuna.  The first day we exchanged 100 Euro (which is about 130 US dollars), and we got over 700 Kuna.  We felt like that was definitely in our favor, until we saw that a drink costs about 40 Kuna.  There were so many times that Andy said, "This is just wrong.  I feel like I'm paying 40 dollars for a Coke/beer!"  It was strange.

I would definitely recommend Croatia.  We were some of the only Americans there, though there were people from all parts of Europe, like the Czech Republic, Italy, France, Germany, and Russia (those were only a few of the cars parked at our resort).  Although the people were all from different areas, the common language everyone spoke to each other was English.  That was great for us.  Everyone treated us kindly and it was fun to experience another new culture.  They all knew we were Americans though, because of the tattoos I think.  Apparently, tattoos are not the thing in Croatia.  I have 2, a dove on my back and a flower on my foot (the most girly tattoos ever) and I felt like a rocker chick!  Obviously, we had a great vacation in Croatia and I hope we get the chance to visit the country again.

Editing note: Guess I lied about not taking the time to put a lot of pictures on this one!

Neuschwanstein Castle: Schwangau

We've seen Neuschwanstein Castle before.  However, we didn't get a chance to get close to it and take a tour of it until our most recent trip to Garmisch.

It was frustrating trying to figure out how to reserve tickets online.  Last time we were there, the tickets were sold out.  Evan was waiting patiently in this rocking chair while we tried to figure it out.  I almost told Andy we should just not go.  We had seen it from a distance, so we didn't have to go.  I am so glad that he insisted that we do it, though.

Seeing the castle up close and going in was WAY more exciting that seeing it from a distance.  This is the front entrance of the castle.  We almost didn't make our tour time because while waiting for the horse and carriage up to it, 2 groups of people cut in front of us.

Here we are on the carriage ride.  I felt really spoiled in the carriage, and I loved it!  Who needs to walk 45 minutes up a huge hill?

We did make it to our tour.  They had already let people in, but they let us run in and catch up thankfully.  We also got to have an English speaking tour!  When we toured Hohenschwangau Castle, we took a tour in Italian, and we had no idea what they were talking about.  This time, we learned a lot about the castle and King Ludwig II.  King Ludwig was obsessed with swans (hence, Neu-SCHWAN-stein castle).  Swans on the bed, carved in the walls, on the curtains, on the floors, on the ceiling.  Literally all over the castle!  There was also one randomly carved dragon, which I thought was odd, and I told Andy, "Wouldn't you think a dragon would eat swans?  Why would he want that?"  I'm crazy, I know.  Unfortunately, you can't really take pictures inside the castle, but I assure you, there are swans everywhere.  King Ludwig only lived in this huge castle for about 6 months before he was told he was crazy and thus unfit to be king.  The next day he was found dead, floating in a pond, along with his psychiatrist.  It's still a mystery as to how they died.

Even though you can't take pictures during the tour, I was able to get one with my phone of the kitchen.  I need a kitchen like this!  There were several brick ovens, and TONS of copper cookware.  Andy and I loved it!  Of course, he was discussing cooking pizzas in the brick oven.  I wonder if King Ludwig enjoyed pizza.  Even if he did, he's never had an Andy Bartlett pizza, and those are the best.

Andy and I were wondering how a king would pick this random spot in the mountains to build a castle.  We don't know how he came to this spot, but we know why he stayed.  This is the view from the back side of the castle.  The lake and the mountains were amazing.  The builders even figured out how to use the pressure of gravity to get running water in the castle, in the 1800's!  I was impressed by that.

After touring the castle, you can walk to a bridge to get a better view.  WOW, right?!  It is stunning!  And all the while, you think, "How did they build that there?" 

This bridge was definitely worth the view.  However, it was a rickety little bridge made of wooden planks, under which ran a mountain waterfall.  Beautiful, but terrifying!  The wooden planks even moved when you walked on them.  I'm surprised I even got this picture of Andy because I was shaking so badly.  Andy thought it was funny to bounce on the boards while I was walking.  When I asked him how he could do that without being afraid, he said, "It's just so funny watching how scared you are!" 

Look at that waterfall.  It is really magnificent, but if that bridge were to break, it would be certain death!  I don't like the thought of that!

In fact, I mostly stayed away from the bridge while Andy was on it.  I said, "Take a picture of me safely on solid ground!"  The bridge was behind me, just where I wanted it to be!  In case you can't tell, I'm basically afraid of everything.  I'm trying to get over that, though, and face fears.

After the tour and the bridge, we looked at the view from the front of the castle.  King Ludwig picked an awesome spot, didn't he?

People always say that the Disney castle is modeled after Neuschwanstein Castle.  What do you think?  It's definitely a possibility.

On the drive back from the castle, we also saw this.  The ruins of a much older castle.

The castle tour was really interesting for me, but I always wonder what Evan thinks of those kinds of tours.  Is he bored?  Is he interested?  Is he just thinking, "I wish I could drive my Hot Wheels through this giant castle"?  I hope he doesn't hate it, but at least I know he gets to have fun on our trips.  These pictures are of him and me after the tour, so he must have been in a good mood.  (Yes, him and me is the correct way to say it in this sentence.  Don't even try to correct me!)

Moral of this story: I'm glad we toured Neuschwanstein instead of getting frustrated about buying tickets.  I'm even glad I went on the scary bridge for a few seconds.  Not letting fear and frustration stop me from doing amazing things.  I live in Europe; I must see all the things!